Room to grow and store: Collier Harvest gets help from private donor to help feed those in need

A.C. SHILTON

5:19 PM, Apr 2, 2013

Collier Harvest volunteer Tara Davenport collects early food donations from the Coco River Post Office for the Stamp Out Hunger food drive in this file photo.
Photo by Carol Joseph

Debi Mahr, right, executive director of the Collier County Hunger and Homeless Coalition, hands out a box of groceries to a resident of the River Park area in Naples. The coalition, partnered with Meals of Hope, St. Matthew's House, Collier Harvest, Capital Grille and the Harry Chapin Food Bank, offered a hot meal to the Gordon River Park Apartment community and handed out about 50 pounds of groceries to families through a mobile pantry in this 2011 file photo.

Jose Duque, right, and his family are served dinner by volunteers from Collier Harvest at a Red Cross shelter for Bonita Springs flood victims in this file photo.

Kayla Pieri, 9, left, and Isabella Inglese, 6, right, take turns filling bags with food while Victoria Inglese, center, assists, as the local chapter of Kids Against Hunger prepared more than 25,000 meals to be shipped out in the ballroom at the Ritz-Carlton Tiburon Golf Resort in Naples in this 2008 file photo. The meals were picked up by Collier Harvest and Harry Chapin Food Bank for distribution to more than 200 social service agencies in Southwest Florida.

Since 1992, Collier Harvest has been connecting local food distribution agencies with excess food that would have otherwise found its way to a landfill. Picking up day-old bread and soon-to-expire groceries and dropping them off at service centers like St. Matthew’s House, the Shelter for Abused Women and Youth Haven, the organization has fed thousands upon thousands of hungry families.

But with the need for emergency food assistance rising each year, the agency is stepping up its efforts. On April 10, the group will cut the ribbon on a new permanent warehouse storage facility.

“Every year we had to relocate. Our warehouse space was provided on the generosity of a developer or shopping center. It was physically and emotionally stressful,” explains board president Jim Iacovino, who has spearheaded the group’s largest annual food drive — the National Association of Letter Carrier’s food drive — for the past few years. “We’re really elated to have this space, and looking forward to the ribbon cutting.”

Iacovino says that, each year, in preparation for the National Association of Letter Carrier’s food drive, the group would invariably have to go out and beg for storage space. Traditionally, the springtime event would bring in literally tons of pounds of food, which the group would stockpile in preparation for the usually lean summer months — if they could find a place to stash it. Now, it will simply be brought to the group’s very own warehouse, where it will slowly be distributed throughout June, July, August and September.

The 1,500-square-foot space was made possible by a generous donation from a private donor. The donor provided the Society of St. Vincent de Paul with funds to buy a large warehouse building on Mercantile Avenue, with a stipulation that part of the building be leased to Collier Harvest.

“We have a 100-year lease,” explains Michelle Paradis, who has been a trustee of Collier Harvest for more than 20 years. For just $1 a year, the organization can use the space.

The hope is that eventually, Collier Harvest can expand the amount of food it is able to distribute by doing less delivering to organizations and focusing more on the collection and storing of food.

“Having the organizations be able to come to us, that is a goal. Right now we deliver food daily, year round, but this could allow us to grow and become more efficient,” says Paradis. She adds that the group excels at orchestrating food drives, and that’s something she hopes they can now focus more on. “The need is growing every year and come September or October, we’re out of food. So we really need to be doing food drives all year long.”

This year, the group will be kicking off its food-drive season with the annual “Stamp Out Hunger” event, which should fill out the empty warehouse space nicely.

“We should collect around 80 five-foot pallets of food, so it’s a really successful event for us,” says Paradis. “We want to get the word out to the snowbirds that before they leave, they should clean our their cupboards.”

And if they collect more than 80 pallets of food, well, that will be just grand. Because, for the first time in 20 years, they’ll finally have a place to put it.

If you go:

What: Collier Harvest’s ribbon cutting ceremony will mark the opening of the group’s new warehouse facility. The public is welcome to attend.

When: April 10, 2013. The ceremony will begin at 5 p.m.

Where: 4451 Mercantile Avenue, Naples

Details: For more info, call (239) 455-FOOD

If you go:

What: The annual National Association of Letter Carrier’s “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive

When: Leave cans and nonperishable items out for your letter carrier from now until Saturday, May 11, 2013.

Where: Letter carriers from Marco Island all the way through Bonita Springs will be participating.

Details: To volunteer to help sort items on May 11, call (239) 455-FOOD